The Vermilion Kill
by smileyjunior
Summary: The death of a politician has the CBI on the case. Shots are fired when they get on scene - and not by the CBI, and that's when trouble starts. T - just in case.
1. Chapter 1

The CBI team hadn't had a case in almost a whole week, and they were starting to grow tiresome of all the free time they had. Wayne Rigsby and Kimball Cho made continuous bets on silly little games that they made up on the spot, while Grace Van Pelt watched lightly laughing. Patrick Jane stayed on his couch, falling asleep for short periods of time before waking up again, then have a cup of tea, only to fall asleep. And Tereasa Lisbon was shut away in her office, doing paperwork on their closed cases. Then, the phone rang.

At the same time, everybody's heads shot up and darted to the phones at their desks. Then they looked at each other very briefly, not knowing whether to answer it. Then, in a flash all three of the CBI agents darted for their phones, running like crazy. Choo got to his first, but when he picked up the receiver all he heard was a dial tone. He looked at his phone a little confused, then looked to his boss' office; Lisbon was already on the line.

None of them went back to sit though, they all stood waiting. A short two minutes later Lisbon hung up her phone and headed towards her team, they all looked at her trying to not show their desperate looks. "We got one." She said.

_The Mentalist – The Mentalist – The Mentalist – The Mentalist – The Mentalist – The Mentalist – _

They didn't even need to drive there, Lisbon had said the body was just found a few blocks down. They walked as a group together, and could already see the mob forming ahead. Onlookers curious as to why crime scene tape had been put up, curious as to how the person died.

The team pushed their way through the crowd and ducked under the yellow tape. A group of police officers was gathered around the dumpster. One of them noticed the agents and made his way over, "CBI, I presume?"

Lisbon nodded and showed her badge, "I'm Agent Tereasa Lisbon, these are Agent's Cho, Rigsby, and Van Pelt." She gestured to each of them as they were introduced. "And this is our consultant, Patrick Jane." The police officer nodded his head,

"Officer Lionel. Appreciate ya coming out. Though I understand it wasn't that much of a hassle was it?"

"Never is Officer." Was her response "What do we got?"

"Victim is female, mid thirties early fourties, was found dumped in that dumpster over there," he gestured over to the squad of other officers, "That's irony for ya."

"Why do you say that?"

He looked at her with a dead eye stare "Pretty sure she's in the election… ya know… politician. 'Dumping' on other people's opinions?"

Lisbon wasn't listening, the moment she heard 'election' she muttered "Dammit…" and made her way over. The medical examiner was in the dumpster with the body, "You have an I.D.?"

The ME nodded, "Victim's name is Ariel Gables; she was strangled." Lisbon closed her eyes hoping the words weren't true, she turned and led her team a good twenty feet away from the rest of the crowd. Jane spoke first,

"Gables… wasn't she-"

"Yep." Cho cut him off. Lisbon groaned.

"Republican or Democrat?"

"How should I know?"

"Alright, listen up." Lisbon said, "The media is going to be all over this, I don't want anybody saying anything. And before Brenda Shettrick shows up here demanding that one of you do make a statement, tell her flat-out no. Hell, don't even let Brenda know about this case. Got it?"

"Got it boss." The three agents said in unison. Lisbon turned to Jane,

"Jane?"

He looked innocent, "Don't worry, I got it."

"Agent!" Lisbon turned to see Officer Lionel gesturing for her come over. Lisbon met him and saw that he was pointing to something in the dumpster, separated from the body. It was a picture of an all too familiar face, blonde curly hair and bright blue eyes. It had to have been taken years ago though. His hair was slipped back and he was wearing stage make up, a microphone to his mouth.

Lisbon turned and saw Jane staring back at her, right where she had left him. She was about to say his name, when a shot rang out.


	2. Chapter 2

This was the one thing Lisbon had truly wanted to avoid; Brenda Shettrick in her office, asking her to do an interview.

"Tereasa, please. Just listen!"

"Brenda, I hear you. But the answer is still no. The investigation hasn't been opened for fourty minutes even and your asking me to do a statement way too early."

"Only fourty minutes into the investigation? You may as well jump into Day 2 mode Tereasa, someone tried to kill Jane!"

"We don't know that for sure Brenda… do we have evidence that it's possible? Yes. But I'm not going to make any statements until I know things for certain."

Shettrick was about to retaliate when her phone buzzed. She look down at it then back at Tereasa, "We're not through." And with that she left.

Lisbon let her head drop onto the table as she let out a groan. "Well I thought that was handled very well." She looked up and saw Jane sitting on her couch.

"Shut up," she said.

"Oh don't be so whiny. I'm the one who got shot at."

She shook her head, "Dammit Jane it's just like Dan Hollenbeck all over again."

"Except I'm not blind this time." She could tell, he was trying to make her feel better about the situation.

"We can't necessarily investigate your attempted shooting… we don't even know if you were being shot at. We're going to continue this investigation from the Gables angle."

Jane clapped his hands and rubbed them together standing up, "Alright! Let's get to it then! I think -"

She cut him off "_**But **_I just want you to be cautious. Aware."

"I am a very conscious person Lisbon."

She just glared at him. He grinned and left the room.

_The Mentalist – The Mentalist – The Mentalist – The Mentalist – The Mentalist – The Mentalist – _

The campaign headquarters for Ariel Gables was in a rented building a few blocks down from the CBI. Jane had insisted going with Van Pelt and Rigsby, who went to go break the news of the politician's death to the head of the campaign. His name was David Schue, and when he learned of Gables' death he just closed his eyes and breathed in and out slowly for a good five minutes before Rigsby broke the silence, "Um sir?" Schue's eyes opened, bloodshot.

"Sorry officers. It's just… Ariel was a wonderful woman. Truly inspirational… she would've had the best affect on Sacramento."

Rigsby exchanged a nervous glance with Van Pelt. She shrugged and urged him on. Rigsby cleared his throat. "We just need to ask you a few questions." Schue nodded. Rigsby continued "Did Ms. Gables have any enemies?"

"No… no. I mean was she in an election against others yes. But I wouldn't say they were enemies. Proffesional rivals more or less."

"Was she seeing anybody?"

"No… too consumed by the campaign."

"What about problems recently… she receive any phone calls? Threats? Hate mail?"

"No… not that I'm aware of. Although…"

Jane spoke up "Although what?"

"One letter came… very strange. No return address. Got it yesterday. Ariel waved it off though."

"What did it say?" Van Pelt asked.

"It was very out of the blue, you must understand." He said. "It said, _HE has a girl's name_."

Van Pelt and Rigsby turned to look at Jane. Jane just stood there, fiddling his fingers and rocking on his toes. "Well this stinks."


	3. Chapter 3

Jane was flying his toy helicopter while sitting on the couch in the CBI. Cho, Rigsby, Van Pelt and Lisbon sat at a table not to far away, trying to ignore the hum of the motor from the mini 'copter.

"So what's the connection?" Van Pelt asked. "Between Jane and Gables?"

"Haven't found one yet." Rigsby answered. "But we're still looking."

Lisbon spoke up, "For now we're just going to keep Jane inside CBI until we figure out what's going on."

The helicopter bumped her in the head. Rigsby laughed "Sure you don't want to send him out on the streets?" Lisbon gave him an evil look and he stopped laughing.

"So do we have any leads on Gables' actual murder?"

"Well David Schue, the head of her campaign, says that she hasn't received any threatening emails or phone calls. The only thing that was out of sorts was the note about Jane."

Lisbon rubbed her face in her hands, stressed. Then she looked up "Wait." She said "If this is really all about Jane, then why Gables? Why not just take Jane out?"

Jane looked up at her from his couch. "Jeez do you have to talk about me in such a vile manner? _Take me out_?"

"Hush." She said.

"The murder of someone who's of importance to the government… they would've known that the CBI would've taken the case."

"But the question comes up again," Cho said "Why Gables? Or was she literally just a random kill because she was running in the election?"

"Let's find out." Lisbon said. "Cho, I want you to look into Gables actual campaign. What she was for or against, maybe that's where we can find our answer." Cho nodded curtly and went to his computer. "Rigsby and Van Pelt, go back to Schue, I want you to take a different approach on the questioning. Alright?"

"And me Lisbon?" Jane asked, grinning flirtatiously. "What should I do?"

"Avoid getting shot." She said. "And don't piss anyone off."

_The Mentalist – The Mentalist – The Mentalist – The Mentalist – The Mentalist – The Mentalist – _

"Do you believe in psychics, Mr. Schue?" Van Pelt asked. Rigsby had to fight the urge to send her a perplexed look. That was the way she had just opened the conversation, and he wasn't sure why.

"What was that?" Schue asked.

"Psychics," she said. "Do you believe they exist?"

Schue looked to Rigsby for an explanation, but Rigsby just gave him a cold stare, playing along. "What on earth does that have to do with Ariel's death?"

"About Ariel," Rigsby decided to pitch in "Did she believe in psychics?"

Schue looked, and felt lost. "I don't know not to my knowledge."

"Do you recognize this man?" Van Pelt showed the picture of Jane that they found in the dumpster.

"Yes, of course I do." Schue responded. Obviously, these two agents were insane, "He was here earlier with you today."

"What about before then?" Van Pelt asked.

"No. No I had never seen him before."

Rigsby and Van Pelt exchanged disappointed looks. "Thank-you for your time Mr. Schue." Rigsby said. "We'll be in touch."


End file.
